Culture Currents

Art in all forms has always been a voice in movements for change and has illuminated the essence of the pain and struggle. In launching the new monthly poetry column, SF poet laureate Tongo Eisen-Martin shares his penned voice in powerful, revolutionary elegance to the struggle.

Wanda Sabir opens the door to the abundance of February with the gifts of Black History Month, observations on today’s Jim Crow, stories and people we may not know about like Adam David Miller (A.D.) and young Amanda Gorman, who’s poem, “The Hill We Climb,” breathed hope and vitality into a weary country at the Inauguration of President Joe Biden and Vice-President Kamala Harris.

Emerging through the other side of the first month of 2021, Baba Jahahara Amen-RA Alkerbulan-Ma’at honors those transitioning to the realm of the Ancestors while bringing us into February and all that is to be appreciated, learned and embraced as the path of the movement demands. Revolutionary Love and Reparations Now!

As tortuous as the U.S. prison system is to its residents, it is criminally so to the children of incarcerated parents, and their caretakers. Herein lies a wealth of inspiring and uplifting ways to proactively heal the daily wounds of parenting, family unity and staying human while incarcerated.

Wanda Sabir always brings the best treats to the party and this new year 2021 is no different. Preluding with the celebrations and remembrances in Kwanzaa and then deftly moving along to delicacies of movies, art, poetry and jazz, we are filled with satisfied contentment.

Dr. Frederick Haynes III, pastor of Friendship-West Baptist Church in Dallas, widely known for its focus on social, economic, gender, food and environmental justice, is hosting the 4th Annual King Teach-In with a panel featuring San Francisco Mayor London Breed, who advocates deliberately ending the disparities that plague the Black community.

The Ancestors hold the hearts of their children as the struggle continues to break the chains of bondage in our modern reality of feet on the earth of the past. Calling in the courage and honor of the risen Ancestors to the Slave Rebellion Reenactment seals the bond of love and self-determination in those who will be liberated.

HOPE is the thread that tenaciously weaves its way through the chaos and darkness to infuse we humans with connection, courage and creativity to walk the storm and greet the buds emerging from twigs in spring. HOPE is the validation of our humanity.

As we transition between the trials and traumas of 2020 into the possibilities of hope and inspiration for 2021, Baba Jahahara remembers our new ancestors with honor, respect and love, notes the challenges ahead to infuse renewed energies into the call for reparations, Mother Earth love, freedom for our Political Prisoners and the new Biden-Harris administration’s debt to those who’s votes made the nightmare escape possible.

Nube Brown reads aloud the poem 'Don't Let The Die in Vain' by Corey J. Elder, Folsom State Prison.

Nube Brown reads aloud the poem 'Amerikka' by Michael Philpot, CCI-FL.

Today at 1:30 p.m. at 49 Kiska Road in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunter Point, the acclaimed Curtis Family Cnotes will team up with Mother Brown’s Dining Room in a unique partnership providing free food and song to support the city’s COVID-19 testing and prevention efforts.

Creative must create. The Covid-19 has hurt many people’s ability to remain employed, but Paul Tillman Smith leaped right over that drum set and, with a vibrant team of musicians, created joy and profits from the Bay Area Jazz Society Presents the ‘Higher Power Project’ CD, which will go into a special fund to help musicians and artists of all ages.

Wanda Sabir serves it up for December 2020, from reflecting on the imposed-by-pandemic isolation and remembering time before mask-wearing, to expanded awareness of unhoused people and people passing out food, to upcoming personal care gatherings, poetry, films, and plenty of comedy to lift us into the laughter we so much need.

Speaking the revolutionary love that embodied Comrade Karen Smith and touched so many left behind, Gregory ‘King’ Enegess wholly honors and mourns her transition from this life to Rest In Power.

While mainstream media wasn’t/isn’t looking – ever – Dr. Willie Ratcliff joined in love and gratitude at Mother Brown’s celebrating the Bayview community and Thanksgiving with the best homemade, healthy food laced with the usual warmth and good tidings to feed the spirit and body.

A spectacular simultaneously real and virtual party/fundraiser lifted the love and light on Nov. 20-21, 2020 in the Bayview community! The SF Bay View editor’s torch was passed by Mary and Willie Ratcliff to Malik Washington who, along with Wanda Sabir and new managing editor Nube Brown and so many others, remembered the ancestors and highlighted art, dance, music, food, interviews, homegrown business and voices from the community.

Following the 2020 election of Kamala Harris as the 49th vice president of the United States, well-known poet, Leslé Honoré, paints a conversation with a young brown girl about what she sees, and where realized dreams come from.

Let’s talk gangs, real gangs, New York City gangs, violence, hip hop and rap. The new documentary, ‘Rubble Kings,’ will lift you out of the depths of election frazzle and drop you into a different conversation, perhaps one of inspired possibilities.

Wanda’s Picks are right on time to lift us out of the anxiety of the day-to-day crisis attention, COVID-19 limbo and election/post-election teeth-grinding – like taking the lid off that gift box of chocolate truffles, creams and caramels, with plenty to share.